This invention relates generally to sighting devices for firearms, archery bows, or other projectile launching devices, and more particularly to an adjustable archery sighting device having sight pins of different configurations and/or different illumination effects.
Sighting devices using short segments of light gathering optical fibers to form aiming points at different distances from the target are currently in use. Such optical fibers are typically fluorescent-doped and thus have the capability of gathering ambient light along their length and transmitting that light to their ends. Under ideal lighting conditions, one end of the optical fiber typically serves as a bright aiming point with the brightness being directly dependent on the level of ambient light incident on the length of optical fiber. Since the ambient light equally affects the brightness of all the sight points, confusion can occur when selecting the correct sight point for a particular distance between the target and the user. Although sighting devices with a single sight pin do not have this drawback, such pins are only capable of creating an illuminated sight dot or point with a single wavelength of visible light. If it is desirous or becomes necessary to change the optical fiber, a labor-intensive process is typically required to remove the old optical fiber and replace it with a new one, if that is even possible.
In addition, when the user desires to sight in a distant target, accuracy in aiming not only depends on proper windage and elevation adjustments for a particular archery bow configuration, but also on the size of the sight pin and whether or not the sight window is properly oriented with respect to the riser of a bow. Oftentimes, the sight pin blocks the impact zone of the distant target, especially when the target is small or far away. In the past, changing the relatively thick sight pin for a relatively thin sight pin involved replacing the entire sight assembly. Such a procedure is impractical in the field, especially since relatively large parts must be carried by the user and the replacement sight must be properly tuned for the particular archery bow configuration.
Moreover, due to various procedures and tolerance variations in the manufacturing process, as well as inadvertent bumps that the sighting device may be exposed to in the field, the sight window, and thus the sight pin, can be out of alignment with the line of sight of the user as well as the riser of the bow.
Accordingly, it would be desirous to provide a sight assembly that overcomes disadvantages of the prior art.